Weight Lifting Challenge!!! June 2008

[meb2004]

This is the weight lifting challenge!! Everyone is welcome to join, especially beginners!

Rules:

• Weight lifting is REQUIRED
• Feel free to post about any cardio, callanetics, t-tapp, or anything else that you are doing to help track your progress.
• ALL questions are welcome!
• Progress results are highly encouraged, these can include weight loss, measurements, amount of weight lifted, anything you want!

Get LIFTING!!!

Here is a sample 30 minute lifting workout to do 3 days per week:

1. Squat - 4 sets
2. Deadlift - 4 sets
3. Bench Press - 3 sets
4. Bent-over-row - 3 sets
5. Seated Shoulder Press - 3 sets
6. Biceps Curl - 3 sets
7. Seated Tricep Extension - 3 sets
8. Crunch - do until failure

For each set aim for 8 to 12 repititions and rest for about 30 seconds between each set.
This is just an idea of a place to start, feel free to post your own workout that works for you!

This site might help with those just getting started: ExRx (Exercise Prescription) on the Net

[hadenuff]

I am going to have to ask the trainer at the gym what the heck it is I am doing! You think by now I would have know what those machines are called!

[meb2004]

that's just how I am too! I'm like "that thing with your arms and you move like this..." if I didn't have a book with pictures I would be totally lost

[KellyMarie38]

This will be good. I am taking a rest day today though. My upper body is still sore from Sunday.

[Arcie]

Hello everyone....glad to see this thread!!!
I have been wanting to start weight training to lose and tone from waist up but really don't know where to start. For some time now I have been walking 2.5 miles at no less than 3.5 mph on the treadmill 3-4 days a week so my lower body is not bad...I can see a change.

I have 5 and 8 lb. dumb bells...(can't find my 3 lb. ones) from a previous plan of "good intentions". Is 5 lbs too much to start?

[meb2004]

Originally Posted by Arcie

Hello everyone....glad to see this thread!!!
I have been wanting to start weight training to lose and tone from waist up but really don't know where to start. For some time now I have been walking 2.5 miles at no less than 3.5 mph on the treadmill 3-4 days a week so my lower body is not bad...I can see a change.

I have 5 and 8 lb. dumb bells...(can't find my 3 lb. ones) from a previous plan of "good intentions". Is 5 lbs too much to start?

Generally you want to start light and I think 5 lbs is probably light enough. If you need to go lighter you can always use water bottles instead until your ready for the 5's. Don't look for 3's since you won't use them long enough for it to be worth the money.

Glad to see you here!!!

[meb2004]

So far this month I have completed 4 hours of weight lifting with a total of 8 hours since my restart in the middle of June. My profile pic is the pic I took yesterday of my progress. I cropped off my legs since I am still not happy with them but I am loving this pic of my back. I have a before pic too and I can tell a difference in such a short period of time.

I have attached my before pic from the end of april and the second one was taken yesterday. I've never attached pics before so hopefully this works There is some difference in the zoom and lighting so maybe you guys can tell some difference as well.

[inatic]

motivation!

Lift and recomp everyone.. Happy lifting. Does my heart good to see theads like this.

I work with an on line coach and Im not able to share my plans. He's been a part of my fitness life for two yrs now. I just came off a plan with high volume training 5 days a week with some cardio down now for a few weeks anyway to 3 days of training/much less volume and cardio. Im pretty close to being down with this cut but not sure how much longer/lower i want to go.

anyone using machines needs to asked to be trained on free wts. They are superior and dont let you stay on fixed planes of motion.

[meb2004]

Thanks Ileen! I know you can't share your routine, but feel free to stop by and help answer any questions and help motivate!

[mmam5]

Ya'll are doing great!!!

I did a lower body workout yesterday and my quads/hammies and shoulders are all talking to me today!

In the past couple of years I've recomped wonderfully and cannot see why I'd ever want to stop lifting ... (clicking on my avi you can see a before/after)

My routines are fairly straight forward - usually lifting on M/W/F with some running on t/th and/or the weekend (cardio )

The Pic below shows what I've accomplished thru lifting weights since June 06 ... I was along the lines of a skinny/fat chick at this point (FIanally hitting goal weight) and then slowly worked my way up from weight machines to free weights.

Then Ileen helped nudge me over to the dark side of Free weights and the rest is history

[mmam5]

Silly double post!

[Houston Heather]

I design my own programs. I enjoy doing multi-joint powerlifting exercises (squat, deadlift, bench press) so I designed my own program around them.

Yesterday was Squat day - I did 4 sets of squats. Best set was 8 reps at 75 pounds - which is a tie with my all-time record. I've only been lifting a few months this time around but I take a whey protein shake after every workout. I give it a lot of the credit.

Then I did leg extensions and hamstring curls to further work my legs - 4 sets each, then done. I did some lunges in between sets just to keep the blood flowing. It takes me 45 minutes.

Today I don't do weights - my legs and butt are sore. Good.

Tomorrow I will run first, then do either Deadlift day (I do one set each of these, four repeats: Stiff-legged deadlift, Sumo Deadlift, and Standard Deadlift - 12 sets total). After that I am pretty well exhausted, but I'm not done yet. Then I do some tubing rows, 4 sets lateral pulldowns, and 4 sets of barbell rows. It's probably my toughest workout every week.

After that, I'm going to eat, shower, and donate blood.

If you decide to do these, you have to be incredibly careful or you could hurt your back. You must keep the back completely straight at all times and understand the exercise, completely, 1000%.

I use fairly heavy weights for a girl 45 pounds for the barbell row, and 40-50 pounds for the deadlifts. I do a lot of lifting on my job and my husband is disabled, so I like to think I could pick him up off the floor if I had to.

[hadenuff]

OMG you guys look AMAZING!!!!! Ahhhhh...........one day!

[meb2004]

Originally Posted by Houston Heather

I design my own programs. I enjoy doing multi-joint powerlifting exercises (squat, deadlift, bench press) so I designed my own program around them.

Yesterday was Squat day - I did 4 sets of squats. Best set was 8 reps at 75 pounds - which is a tie with my all-time record. I've only been lifting a few months this time around but I take a whey protein shake after every workout. I give it a lot of the credit.

Then I did leg extensions and hamstring curls to further work my legs - 4 sets each, then done. I did some lunges in between sets just to keep the blood flowing. It takes me 45 minutes.

Today I don't do weights - my legs and butt are sore. Good.

Tomorrow I will run first, then do either Deadlift day (I do one set each of these, four repeats: Stiff-legged deadlift, Sumo Deadlift, and Standard Deadlift - 12 sets total). After that I am pretty well exhausted, but I'm not done yet. Then I do some tubing rows, 4 sets lateral pulldowns, and 4 sets of barbell rows. It's probably my toughest workout every week.

[COLOR="Red"]After that, I'm going to eat, shower, and donate blood.[/COLOR]

If you decide to do these, you have to be incredibly careful or you could hurt your back. You must keep the back completely straight at all times and understand the exercise, completely, 1000%.

I use fairly heavy weights for a girl 45 pounds for the barbell row, and 40-50 pounds for the deadlifts. I do a lot of lifting on my job and my husband is disabled, so I like to think I could pick him up off the floor if I had to.

hahaha, for some reason this just seemed ultra hardcore to me, and I LOVE IT!!! ... you know, just a typical day, gonna pump some iron, shower, save some lives, ya know, the usual...


Marci! Your progress rocks!!

[Arcie]

OT but.......
Houston...and ALL others who donate blood: Thank you, thank you!! People like you have saved so many lives and my SO is one of them. God bless....

meb2004..thanks for your response to my question about starter dumb bell weight. I appreciate your help.
Arcie

[Houston Heather]

DH would be dead without blood donors. He was in a terrible accident several years ago and should have been dead a couple times over.

I was actually in the room, he was in ICU. Doing very badly. They ordered blood, brought it in, hung it. Gradually, all his vital signs got better.

It's not something you forget. And he's coming with me, too.

If I don't do my cardio and weights before I donate, it won't happen. I'll take tomorrow and Thursday as off days, and do chest and arms Friday and Saturday.

Here's a photo of me squatting:

[hadenuff]

Transfusions saved my baby too. She was 3 months premature and needed transfusions every three days in the beginning. Unfortunately I also got a transfusion when I had our other daughter and contracted something from it. Not anything major but I can't donate. So THANK YOU to all who do!

[meb2004]

Wow your stories are so touching it's really amazing how many lives have been touched by blood donors

Heather love the pic!! it looks like you got a nice little setup there too!

Got my full body workout coming up later today, will be posting when it's over!!

[Houston Heather]

Well, DH wanted to get me a "present". I said, home gym. He's like, you don't want jewelry or clothes? I said, Nope, home gym.

I use it a lot more than I would just about anything else.

Anyway, this morning I got up and ran for half an hour (just to keep the old heart and lungs happy, I've had enough of hospitals). When I got back, I wanted to do deadlift day but my spinal erector muscles (they run along the spinal cord) were pretty tender. Plus, my quads (front of thighs) were stiff too from squat day on Monday.

Sooooooo.... I did chest day today instead. I do flat chest flyes, flat chest presses, incline flyes, and incline presses. 4 sets of each. I did a little tubing stretch-out work at the end. It took half an hour.

I bench pressed 45 pounds for 7 reps. I think that's an all-time high.

Now it's off to eat a good breakfast before paratransit takes us to the blood bank.

[mmam5]

wooo hoo to the golden 3 - Deadlift, BenchPress and Squats!

Heather - LOVE the picture of you squatting - now I have "Home Gym Envy"

At one of my old jobs the Blood Mobile would come to US - we all drew numbers and gave blood in that order - as soon as you were done you got to go home! My new job let's us off to give blood, so that's still nice ...

Thanks Meb - it's been a lot of fun - as you already know

Wendy, Arcie, and anyone else joining in - you'll get there before you know it!

Today is back/chest/abs for me - DH meets me at the "Y" for an early lunch date ... will post WO afterwards

[inatic]

day two of my 3 day program.. we worked legs and abs.

My squats sets were: 165x5r, 175x5 and 185x3r
and
my RDL (romain dead lifts) 155rx5r, 185x5rx2 sets

we had a few other exercises

[meb2004]

Workout DONE! did about 1 hour of lifting, reduced my reps down to a max of 8 so that I can load on some more weight I'm still working up in weight since my restart so my highest weight is only about 35 lbs right now, gonna keep going though!! That's a total of 35 lbs when I use my barbell, I guess really it's only 17.5 per side though these numbers should hopefully go way up don't want to injure myself though by going up too fast, just gotta be patient

hour 5 done for the month
9 hours total! yay!!

[KellyMarie38]

Originally Posted by meb2004

Workout DONE! did about 1 hour of lifting, reduced my reps down to a max of 8 so that I can load on some more weight I'm still working up in weight since my restart so my highest weight is only about 35 lbs right now, gonna keep going though!! That's a total of 35 lbs when I use my barbell, I guess really it's only 17.5 per side though these numbers should hopefully go way up don't want to injure myself though by going up too fast, just gotta be patient

hour 5 done for the month
9 hours total! yay!!

I have a ?. So, if I can lift 40 lbs. for 10-15 reps I should raise it to say 45 or 50 for 8-10? and still do 3 sets?

[inatic]

what exercise and for what body part and what is your set up

[KellyMarie38]

Originally Posted by inatic

what exercise and for what body part and what is your set up

I don't think I know how to explain my set up, I use the machines at the gym right now. This is my upper body workout.

[inatic]

k
look at your machines and write them down..

and learn how to use free wts.. (most) machines arent good for you as it keeps you in a fixed plane of motion and you are more pron to injury.

[mmam5]

I'm done for today

Rack Pull (

rack pull

vid - NOT me )135# WU x 5
185# x 5
205# x 5
[COLOR=red]235# x 5 - PR[/COLOR]!!!!
225# x 5
185# x 5

Flat Bench Press
45# WU x 5
65# 5 x 5

BOR (bent over rows)
65# 3 x 5 - suppinated
75# 2 x 5

Ab Crunch (machine)
65# 3 x 10
65# 1 x 10 - obliques- each side

[meb2004]

give free weights a try! (although I mainly use them since I don't belong to a gym )

you might want to lower the weight a little at first so you can maintain control, but you'll probably be able to move back up to where you were before pretty quickly. The rule of thumb is to move up in weight if you can do your maximum goal reps in perfect form. So if you are doing 15 reps each time with perfect form you can go up in weight until you can do 15 reps again.

I'm reducing my reps since I want to lift heavier weights for a bit. I was doing 3 sets of 15 reps/12 reps/8 reps and got to the point where I was moving up in weight very slowly. So now I'm switching it up and doing 6 to 8 reps per set. I know it can be good to switch your routine up after around 4 to 6 weeks maybe?

Maybe, Ileen will share more of her wisdom

[Houston Heather]

The only "machines" I use are my leg extension attachment, lateral pulldown, and triceps pulldown. The majority of my exercises are free weights, I definitely get a better workout and I don't have to wait on someone to finish. Or my favorite, the creepy guy who hung out by the thigh machines. Ick.

The blood draws went great and then we ran an errand at the mall. I enjoyed my nap when I got home!

My magazines say to change up your routine every couple-three months. Of course, they also advocate sugary post-workout drinks.

[inatic]

we rarely use the leg extension.. THe only ones consistently in our program was Lat pulldown and seated cable rows.